De Blasio aides consulted on committee assignments

Aides to Mayor Bill de Blasio were in touch with leaders of the City Council as they decided which members would be awarded coveted committee assignments, a councilman acknowledged on Wednesday.

The conversations came after Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito had previously said that the mayor and his staff would have no role in what she had described as a Council "internal process."

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After the Rules Committee voted 7-0 on the committee assignments this morning, the chairman of the committee, Councilman Brad Lander, told reporters, “A lot of people were consulted."

“The decisions were ultimately made by the speaker in consultation with other council members and her staff,” he added. “I heard personally from council members first and foremost. And then I heard from a lot of other people: housing advocates, transportation advocates. I heard from good government groups, I heard from unions, I heard from the business community, from a lot of people who reached.”

Those conversations happened in phone calls, emails, and face-to-face conversations, he said.

Asked by Capital if the mayor’s office was part of the conversations, Lander said, “Yeah, I guess I did talk to members of the administration, in addition to all these other people.”

After the 51-member body voted 47-4 to approve the committee assignments, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito held a press conference and was asked what role the mayor played in the assignments.

“Well, it was my decision, ultimately,” Mark-Viverito said. “The buck stops with me. Conversations were had with the focus on members and their districts.”

Days earlier, Mark-Viverito said the mayor would not have a role in the process.

At the Three Kings Day celebration in Corona on Jan. 12, Capital asked the new speaker if there was any role for the mayor or his aides to play in helping decide on committee assignments.

“Uh, not at all,” Mark-Viverito said. “That is an internal process. That is an internal conversation that we’re having and at some point those decisions will be made.”